Temporary Perfections (Guido Guerrieri Series #4)

by Gianrico Carofiglio

Overview

The electrifying best-selling crime thriller from Italy, available for the first time in English. An instant sensation and number-one best seller since its publication, Temporary Perfections is the fourth crime novel by former Italian prosecutor Gianrico Carofiglio to feature Guido Guerrieri. A lawyer practicing in Bari, in southwest Italy, Guido Guerrieri is hired by an old colleague to work a missing-persons case that the police have failed to solve. Manuela Ferraro disappeared six months ago after spending a September weekend at a beach resort; as Guerrieri digs deep into her life and activities, he stumbles into a sinister drug ring and the real truth about why Ferraro vanished.
Simultaneously thoughtful and suspenseful, this is crime fiction at its best.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780847837465
Publisher:	Rizzoli
Publication date:	09/13/2011
Series:	Guido Guerrieri Series , #4
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	386,885
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Award-winning, best-selling Italian crime novelist Gianrico Carofiglio is the author of three previous novels featuring the character of defense lawyer Guido Guerrieri: Involuntary Witness, A Walk in the Dark, and Reasonable Doubts. A former prosecutor in Bari, Puglia, Carofiglio is an expert in the investigation of organized crime and related psychology. His other novels include The Past is a Foreign Country. Carofiglio’s books have been translated into seventeen languages worldwide.

Editorial Reviews

Guido Guerrieri looks into a cold case in Carofiglio's absorbing fourth legal thriller featuring the self-deprecating defense attorney (after Reasonable Doubts). Six months after beautiful 22-year-old Manuela Ferraro disappeared on her way home to Bari from Rome, where she was a college student, Manuela's parents are desperate. The carabinieri who handled the investigation are about to give up. As a favor to a fellow lawyer, Guerrieri agrees to help, though it means doing more detective work than usual. Fortyish, divorced, and recently dumped by a lover, Guerrieri suffers from Proustian memory fugues centered on painful episodes in his youth that become increasingly frequent as he approaches a solution to the mystery—a solution that nauseates him because it forces him to obey his own tough code of integrity. A satisfyingly complex protagonist and well-drawn secondary characters more than compensate for a relatively thin plot. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Along with elegant fashion and fine wine, Italy's best exports now include number one bestselling mystery writer Gianrico Carofiglio. In his new book Temporary Perfections he demonstrates his intimate knowledge of crime and punishment (he's a former prosecutor) while proving himself a masterful novelist." ~Gay Talese

"Temporary Perfections is a first-rate thriller, stylish, witty and suspenseful. I am looking forward to many more from Carofiglio." Kathy Reichs

"Guido Guerrieri looks into a cold case in Carofiglio's absorbing fourth legal thriller featuring the self-deprecating defense attorney (after Reasonable Doubts). Six months after beautiful 22-year-old Manuela Ferraro disappeared on her way home to Bari from Rome, where she was a college student, Manuela's parents are desperate. The carabinieri who handled the investigation are about to give up. As a favor to a fellow lawyer, Guerrieri agrees to help, though it means doing more detective work than usual. Fortyish, divorced, and recently dumped by a lover, Guerrieri suffers from Proustian memory fugues centered on painful episodes in his youth that become increasingly frequent as he approaches a solution to the mystery--a solution that nauseates him because it forces him to obey his own tough code of integrity. A satisfyingly complex protagonist and well-drawn secondary characters..." ~Publisher's Weekly

"...as exacting, contemplative and sometimes downright poky as any crime writer I can think of. Yet when the Italian defense lawyer isn’t doing something, he is thinking, and what goes on in his doubt-stuffed head is nearly always captivating." ~Washington Post

From the Publisher